Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 119
Only Noblemtl
A language that was thought to have been used by dragons or underground people entered Alan’s mind.
‘But it’s a pity.’
The sphere of light completed its basic transmission, made a strange sound, and then disappeared. Since it was the basic transmission, there must have been a next time, so why did it disappear?
‘Basics? What does that mean? Were there classes in letters back then?’
It was not surprising that even a few hundred years ago, there were quite a few countries where the ruling and ruled classes spoke different languages.
I also regretted the disappearance of the golem. If I had known that a door could be made using the golem as a material, I would have watched it for a long time without touching the activated soul stone.
Even though I gained a considerable amount of knowledge due to my innate or learned thirst for knowledge, I felt a greater sense of regret.
Taylor had a keen eye for Alan.
“You seem so greedy.”
“···.”
“It’s already in the past, so let it go and focus on what you’ve achieved. If you digest it slowly and go down the labyrinth, another opportunity will arise. Rather, use your regrets as a driving force for exploration.”
Alan nodded and looked at the lying panther. The dragon golem had the ability to manipulate wind, which suited the panther’s close combat and speed.
It was difficult to apply the technology right away even though I knew it. In fact, knowledge is another expression of ignorance, and in order to use it properly, I had to go through countless trials and errors.
For that reason, the leopard was a skeleton-like creature. It was a process of removing the outer armor and re-carving it from the basic magic circle.
Taylor also heard the story about language. At first, he jumped around like a child who didn’t know what to do, and then he started coughing as if nothing had happened.
“Hmm, hmm! I got excited for a moment.”
“yes?”
“If you haven’t seen it, that’s fine. I really wonder how you acquired such knowledge. I won’t ask you to tell me, so you should keep it a secret if you can.”
“Even if I wanted to teach you, it would be impossible.”
“What do you mean?”
“Can a man learn to flap his wings like an eagle?”
“It’s impossible because there are no wings themselves. Oh, so what you’re saying is that you have to meet the conditions to be eligible.”
“yes.”
“It’s a strange language. Or maybe you learned it by a roundabout way?”
“That could be true. Actually, I’m still trying to remember, but it’s not easy. I feel like I’m wandering in the fog.”
Even though I couldn’t teach it, I could still use it, so the desire kept growing. But I couldn’t just say, “I know a little bit about the language of the labyrinth, can I see some Ooparts?” So I needed another way.
A typical method is to work under a rich person who runs a museum with Oparts, or to become an employee at an auction house. Or, you can get a job as an appraiser or higher-ranking employee of a famous explorer’s association.
However, since the job of handling Ooparts requires a clear identity and credit, it was not a job that Alan, who had entered the country illegally, could apply for. Even if he had applied, it was questionable whether he would be selected after having not even been an explorer for a year.
If he could read the language of the labyrinth, they would hire him right away, but it was obvious how they would treat Alan. A life of being watched and locked up for life was far from his tastes.
“Just accept the Explorers’ Guild’s request.”
“I was thinking that too.”
Alan closed his eyes and connected to the universe. The virtual world that unfolded before his eyes, as always, was far beyond reality.
Instead of the ground, buildings were built on clouds, and schools of unidentified fish flew between them. A giant wolf appeared and swallowed the sun, spitting out the moon instead.
One thing that is unfortunate about the space where imagination is realized as it is is that the clarity is greatly reduced. This was the problem for Alan, who did not have a brain expansion device.
‘You just have to get what you need.’
Image quality was of no use. Only knowledge mattered.
As Alan recalled the breaker, his body flew quickly. As he was skimming over the clouds, a two-legged shark suddenly jumped out from below.
A lycan with a shark head on a muscular torso grinned with sharp teeth.
“You dive into Samramansang without any expansion devices? You’re a big shot.”
“Thank you for your concern.”
“Hahaha. Why should I worry? There’s an idiot right in front of me without a firewall.”
The shark suddenly grew larger. This does not mean it came closer, but rather grew in physical size.
This was a virtual world, so the laws of reality could be overturned at any time. The shark’s appearance was also likely to be an avatar.
Each sharp tooth was as big as Alan’s head. When he closed his mouth, the teeth clenched together and Alan disappeared.
“The school or parents must have told us not to access the device without an extension device… Should we try to extract information about what device we used to access it?”
The shark’s mouth was wagging. It looked like it was chewing on something, but if you looked inside, it was actually tracing Alan’s signal back and stealing data.
But suddenly the shark stopped moving. Its sharp teeth began to fall out on their own.
“What is this?”
It wasn’t real, but he spoke properly. But that was it. His body wouldn’t move, and he couldn’t disconnect. Only then did the shark realize.
“Fuck… Are you a wizard? Are you?! Those guys are the only ones who can do this without any expansion devices!”
“You are the shark that attacks the diver. Shark is a general term for that type of thing, so they must have borrowed that appearance.”
Alan said, looking at his hand. Or rather, the shark-shaped doll he was holding.
“What do you plan to do with me?”
“Do dogs like dolls?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Alan ignored the shark’s words and continued flying. As he continued to fly in a certain direction, the shark’s body finally turned blue. The sight of the gray doll turning blue was somewhat eye-catching.
“Here!”
“It’s Breaker’s area.”
On the remote island, huge stone slabs were standing out like mushrooms. If Alan hadn’t turned off the user filter, he would have seen the avatars of explorers wandering around.
Arriving in front of the stone slab, Alan took off the doll and threw it down. A vicious fang emerged from the air and devoured the shark. The Doberman-like firewall glanced at Alan and then disappeared again.
If you get treated like that, there are usually two possible outcomes. The entire brain expansion device will burn out and your brain will be damaged, or you will be caught by being tracked and paralyzed at the same time.
Breaker preferred the latter, and the shark targeting Alan will be forced to eat only energy bars purchased with taxpayers’ money in a small room for a while.
I glanced at the shark and scanned the stone tablet. There were many requests regarding Ooparts. Explorers did not necessarily enter dungeons. Those who missed the land also took on jobs like mercenaries.
We need an accurate appraisal of Oparts. Long-standing, trustworthy, and tight-lipped…
We are looking for people for performance testing. We need to get them in person, so we are looking for someone who is strong. They must sign a risk consent form without fail.
Request for Oparts transportation. Looking for someone with good skills and passion. The commission fee will be negotiated after consultation.
There were all sorts of requests, but none of them caught Alan’s eye. First of all, there were many guys whose conditions were strange.
‘Breaker accepts requests like this?’
Alan tilted his head and noticed a star in the corner. It was a one-star, meaning it was a bad request.
This was different. The Breaker had already classified them, so the choice was up to the Explorer.
‘Found it.’
I scanned the stone tablet and stopped at a certain part. It was a regular request from the city university’s labyrinth department.
‘Protecting students during exploration, guarding Oparts and ruins.’
Since students in the Labyrinth Department have to frequently enter and exit the Labyrinth, they always recruit explorers. It was a pretty good request with three stars.
The problem was that the commission fee was smaller than other work due to the department’s budget. Of course, this did not concern Alan, and he was also curious about what the university was like.
*
Alan took the assignment and headed to the city university. Shiva and Taylor said they would take a break this time, as the mere mention of the university made their heads spin.
The Maze City University had secured a fairly large site. It was not built when land prices were high like they are now, but rather, it was built on the outskirts and transformed into a city center as the city expanded.
The landscaping was well done, and the harmony between the buildings and plants was amazing. There was even a building that had one of its pillars entrusted to a living tree.
‘This is a hall of learning.’
As expected from a place where the city’s best talents gather, the atmosphere inside was completely different from outside.
First of all, there were no gunshots or explosions. There were no zombies running around the streets under the influence of drugs. A similar but slightly different type passed by.
“Ugh~.”
“Oh, it stinks. Drink it up a little.”
“I’m not drunk. I need alcohol to relieve stress.”
It was a common sight to see Shiva and Taylor, who loved Seongsu. It was such a familiar sight, and Alan understood it because he knew the importance of relieving stress.
‘How hard did he have to study to be like that?’
Thinking back, I don’t remember relieving stress in that way. I had so much fun drawing runes and stamping star symbols that I didn’t even realize how much time had passed.
‘I didn’t live hard enough to get to that point. Let me reflect on that…’
Alan followed the new golem that guided the visitors to their destination.
In front of the labyrinth department building, which had a brick exterior, there was a large parking lot where students were gathered. In the center, a head suddenly popped up.
Professor Oros, an orc of great intelligence, was teaching among the students.
I peeked through the students and saw a giant mole, Terragula, that appears in the primeval forest, lying quietly. It couldn’t be helped because its stomach was split open.
“Do you see the huge salivary glands? Terragula’s saliva breaks down the dirt when it’s wet, and hardens it when it’s dry. That’s why it licks its claws with its long tongue. Did you know? Some of them even get their tongues cut off while doing that. That’s all for today’s lesson.”
If we dissect in the classroom, the smell will be so bad that we must have held the class outside. The students parted like the tide, and Oros walked out with a majestic appearance.
He was wearing a suit, not an exploration suit, and his bulging muscles showed off his presence once again. He stopped when he saw Alan as he was about to enter the building.
“Alan Hak, or Explorer. Long time no see. How’s the expedition going?”
“I went down to the primeval forest.”
“Weren’t we at the entrance of the cave when we met? You’ve already gone down there. Oh, did you receive a request this time?”
“yes.”
“Mr. Lecter, please clean up here. Alan Explorer, follow me.”
A man with black hair and a sharp expression activated the bracelet-shaped Ebi. The halo of light gradually erased Terragula’s blood.
As I entered the building, the sunlight disappeared and a cool air enveloped me. The hallway was lined with paintings of the inside of the labyrinth.
Since we can’t take photos or videos of the inside of the labyrinth, we must have recreated it from memory. Or the artist must have gone down there and painted it himself.
Oros’s study was as big as his body. The furniture inside was larger than what a normal person would use. When he sat down on the sofa, it creaked.
“This is tea brewed from chrysanthemums collected from the labyrinth.”
The teacup in front of Alan was about the size of a beer mug. He began to drink slowly, if only because of the sincerity he had put into it.
As I looked around the lab, I saw a few Ooparts as I had expected. One of them was hemispherical and shot out blue stars in all directions.
“Is that a thing that catches your eye? I guess it’s an item that records the movement of celestial bodies during the time when Ooparts were created.”
“Oh, I see.”
Alan saw what the object was.
“It looks just like a newborn mobile.”
“Oh… That interpretation is also possible. I think babies would really like it if you hung it from the ceiling. Maybe it’s because you’re an explorer, but you have a different perspective.”
At that moment, the door opened and Assistant Lecturer came in with a tired expression. I couldn’t tell if it was his original impression or because he had too much departmental work to do.
“Mr. Lecter, you could have taken your time, but you already took care of it?”
“Yes. I do it because I enjoy it.”
If you’re happy, there’s nothing you can do about it. Alan nodded inwardly.
Meanwhile, Oros was looking at Alan with a strange gaze. Alan thought that he resembled the explorers who had discovered the treasure vault.
“Your passion and intelligence are not typical of ordinary explorers. I really like you. That’s why you came here without caring about the commission fee. Do you have any intention of being hired as a full-time employee instead of a commission?”
Before Alan could say anything, Lecter showed an unusual reaction. He stood behind Professor Oros and shook his head slightly to the side.
“It’s a shame, but exploring is fun.”
“There’s nothing we can do. Mr. Lecter, please give Explorer Alan the details of your duties.”
Oros added before leaving the lab.
“Come back when you’re done. Let’s talk.”
When the door closed, Lecter’s expression looked worse than before. Oros, being a depth 5 expert, must have noticed what his assistant had done.
End